Ppera, I'd like to applaud you on posting here in a polite attempt to resolve the issues you have with D-Bug.

However, I really think that the issue a lot of people have with you is that when they try to report something as not working, you deny that there's a problem.  I've tried several of your patches, and some work for me, and others don't.  One of them (Bomb Jack) I've tried several times, and each time I attempt to run it (from a zip disc, thank god) it crashes and corrupts the disk to the point where I have to reformat it.

This is on an STE, 4MB, TOS2.06 with HDDriver.  Nothing special about my set up at all.

I've not told you this before because I know it'll just result in you telling me I'm a liar (which I'm not).  On the other hand, I've tested several games for D-Bug and have (on occasion) found the odd release with a crash problem.  I've emailed/MSN'ed them about it, advising how to repeat the bug and my hardware, and every time they've taken my report on face value and so far have fixed everything I've had problems with.  In fact, I've even been congratulated for spotting the problem in the first place.

I think it's really positive that you are interested in fixing/adapting games, but you have to accept that a certain amount of responsibility comes with this.  You need to test your adaptations and software releases thoroughly on different hardware set-ups before posting them up for download - it's just not fair to expect people to accept their hard disk being trashed when using one of your releases as being their fault.  I believe it's this that actually caused the fall-out between you and D-Bug, isn't it?

One of the reasons why D-Bug and Klaz are so well respected in the scene is that they thoroughly test their releases on all hardware config's possible (with other people's help) before release.  They patch games to work with various HD drivers, ensure that they run from a clean boot without any additional patching software, and the work they've done with ULS *is* outstanding and it certainly doesn't deserve the bogus reviews you've been giving it on Atari-Forum, saying that it can't do things that CJ and Klaz have proven that it can.  And like I said above, if someone posts a bug report, they don't say "oh well, it works for me so it must be your shitty HW" - they investigate and fix the problem if possible.  This is the attitude that you need to adopt if you want to move forward - you need to be able to accept criticism of your releases, admit when you are proven wrong and accept bug reports (especially repeatable ones) from users.

Now I'm not directly affiliated with D-Bug/Automation (I'm just a loyal fan, friend and part-time tester), but I personally think that if you take the above into account then there's a good chance that you'll be able to co-exist peacefully.

Finally, you recently stated on Atari-Forum that D-Bug's Hook patch doesn't work for you.  While you're here can you please explain what the problem is?

James